Prior interactive applications have been hindered by, among other things, disparate communication paths, and in some cases no communication paths at all. For example, it is an unmet goal where users are enabled to “play along with their TV” in an effective manner, i.e., to have some involvement with what is being displayed on the screen, rather than simply a passive experience.
Such efforts have been hindered by the lack of technological improvements in this area. As one initial effort, small handheld devices were developed to allow users to keep track of their own score, e.g., as they play along with a game of Jeopardy®. Such efforts are an example of no communication paths, and are limited by the user's speed at keeping track of the various answers and questions, as well as the inherent inaccuracies in user self-monitoring.
In more advanced efforts, so-called “second screens” have been employed. But these too were hindered by limitations related to the user's speed at button pushing, by disparate communication paths, and were often viewed by critics as an inferior “look-down, look-up, look-down, look-up” approach, i.e., a non-seamless, experience.
Other related efforts include those related to polling, such as in certain televised town hall meetings, as well as reality show competitions in which users are allowed to vote by employing second screens to input votes or user choices that are then tallied and displayed. The intention and result of such efforts just information gathering, and lacks aspects of a full interactive experience.
In general, many technological barriers can be understood to be attendant to such efforts. These include inferior voice recognition technology, the lack of prior advanced remote controls, and limitations on content delivery.
This Background is provided to introduce a brief context for the Summary and Detailed Description that follow. This Background is not intended to be an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter nor be viewed as limiting the claimed subject matter to implementations that solve any or all of the disadvantages or problems presented above.